Welcome to child Bella living Italian style I'm your host Barberin Tippi and we're
here for
a very special half hour so sit back and relax and listen to the story about the
National Center for Podger E.P.O. Now celebrating forty five years in Bartow P.A.
Right outside the Philadelphia suburban Western suburban market real easy to get to
and I'd like to welcome my guest who have brought together to work with them this
very special relic today of project Fios and that's how Rica lander and his
daughter Julia nice to see you thank you so much for having us birds
a pleasure to have you here Harry were loaded loaded with questions for forty five
years that you have been out in Bartow. Your wife used to take the in.
If you take the title of president co-founder Yes However your wife here who isn't
with us today is the epidurals behind this big time yes so where are your
people from Harry India tell you the clinchers beautiful family name where our
various family from. Various mother was born and your brooch area now it's
called What the Middle East so area because and her father was from Sicily OK OK
and your family background is really interesting well I. I was orphaned
I was an adopted boy. And I dop the parents name is D'Ambrosio
but I always kept my birth mother's name because in the thirty's there were no
lawyers no papers involved they took me they loved me they raised me and right from
the off very from the hospital as well you are certainly blessed from the time you
were poor yes to this I was to be in
a loving family so growing up to tell you what part of that area of Philadelphia
region did you grow up Norristown for them yeah and they could tell you population
yes yes yes and when you when you met there what area was she from she was
from well it was an area she was from large town yes his she would live in
a well as straight
a time yet the bakery but I met her. She came out of high school on the
front lawn and I was up there we're playing baseball OK hit it we call
them and they get out OK and this guy Freddie Aliyev and George George lived George
or that was present
a student council and we were talking and I asked George I said Who's who's that
girl over there that's your more beautiful. OK you win
a meter I said yes so he introduced us she was sixteen I was nineteen.
And. We started to talk and I was going up every day she was coming out every
day and you know we got together and six children later Yeah and I married her when
she was going to years old OK you know how old were you Mary fifty years four
months and seven days how beautiful you know that's
a Celebrate your fiftieth anniversary Well your wife is
a really special person there because she was a strong personality as a as
a mother I'm sure as
a mother I'm sure and you came along Julia in what part of the children's chain I
was the second born I was born in one nine hundred fifty nine my brother was first
. We maintain the Italian tradition my brother was named after my grandfather I was
named after my grandmother my sister after me after my father's mother and we
continued on with all of the traditional family names my brother Michelangelo
myself Julia Christina my sisters etc until Vera Marie was born and it
was the birth of beer and Marie that actually introduced our family to pottery
P.O.
My father and mother married they went into business together we had an Italian American
grocery store in the East End of Norse town across the street from the Italian
parish holy savior church and we catered to the
immigrants and when Vera Marie was born and she was not given at all any
hope of living it was all of those those dear dear customers of ours in the Italian
community who offered prayers for her to all the different devotions whether it was
Lama the one that the shock our mud on the or. The grandma and cosmos and
Anjana but there was one customer who said How are. Hey tell your wife about pied
repeal he is
a living saint Now how did your daughter veer get named Chris your wife is
a fear I was thinking we have that daughter's name wrong how did your daughter very
well when the player here was born eight thirty that evening on April nineteenth
the doctor come out and said Perry there's
a little problems with fear. So. He said we're going to take her up
stairs sister my domain is up stairs. So I went along and she
was beautiful little girl long black hair and sister McDonogh So we got to give her
a name. I'm sorry. But. I said
well they were after her mother dear Marie he said fine. And Vera Marie
and sister McDonogh. Drew together and they conversed all the
time in letters and everything about DOMA she died what they said year two years
ago and she remembered beer and air it just it was
a beautiful beautiful story and your Vieira was could you tell us about her
physical ailment at the time. She had massive congenital defects that's
what we were told of you were in your yeah do your unary track and.
Dr cheese I can't think his name it's hurts our words or remember and yet he says
You're fortunate and one sense Mr Callender that Dr Koop is at Children's Hospital
C effort coop he he was fierce doctor he was
a surgeon general United States yes. And Dr Koop did everything and he.
Saved her life gave her life for two years. And then when she was getting close to
two years he called us down. He says and we went into his office.
And he said you have an undertaker and I said Yeah I said well your daughter Buras
I'm going do everything I can to make sure it's comparable as I can maybe you'll be
able to take her. And this was in his office I'm sitting on one side my wife.
And I looked up and I saw picture of
a boy in his office he said yeah that's my son David he was killed
in
a mountain climbing accident. And me and my wife were all excited about going up there
and then I said you know why should we go up there because David is already in
heaven that's just the house that he lived in the body hanging on the rope. So.
I asked
a most are you Catholic Dr Koop he said no but if I didn't believe in the supreme
being I would never lift the scaffold to
a child. So in the interim the phone rings.
Things changed the room for
a beer her platelet count went up everything. He says well you're going to take her
home he said just keep her comfortable as you can in the interim it's important if
you don't mind I know that one of the the last surgeries that was done to
make her comfortable was they removed her urine ery bladder OK and that's when my
mother said How is she to live without
a bladder and that's when Dr Koop told her she wasn't going to live and we we did
our best to make her comfortable and then he tried to explain the story that my
father was recounting that he too lost
a child and try to understand that you know this is only a body and there is
a place for them to go as saturable my mother wasn't buying it because she said she
was going to fight to do whatever she could to keep that child alive and of course
she had the best of medical attention but she was also turning to God and she
prayed my father took her always to St John Newman who was bless it John you know
it's a time in needed a miracle for his is canonization they were in
a plane they were imploring everyone's help and. As well so we'll be
back right after this to hear
a little bit more about this center the National Center for Project and the energy
of what Vera calander was able to accomplish right here in the United States state
to. Ciao Bella I'm barber and zippy executive producer of child Bella living
Italian style premiering soon here on Radnor T.V.
Studios twenty one and my family background is from the approved Sea region of it
only in this little town here called Lot eight zero up Rutina the surrounding towns
of KY eighty and not
a CO also in the pretty reaching part of my family well we'll be interviewing
a talent Americans in the surrounding communities here in the coming up
a so we'll be featuring in the kitchen series some traditional foods and
nontraditional foods of the different Italian regions and we'll be sharing all that
from tweens to seniors so look for those upcoming episodes of child Bella living
Italian style premiering soon on Radnor twenty one Chavez. Welcome back to
chat about well living Italian style and on this edition we're talking to the
calander is from the National Center for Project P.-O.
In Bartow which is open for all of us to go to especially in the beautiful weather
month coming up and Julie I'd like to talk about to continue the talk we were about
your mom and here this young Italian woman who is one what background she says
Sealion What is her. Cecilia and Brits
a Brit says now not moralise like
a show she's gets this news about her daughter not going to accept too much about
taking her daughter home to just go back to the Lord what happens Julia Well she
was at home with Vera Marie and the baby that had just been born Christina she was
born at the end of August and this was laid at the end of July and this was late
August that my mom was praying and actually speaking to God just as
a mother would and asking questions like How could you give me this beautiful baby
and let me have her for so long and then you want to take her away from me and look
at all my beautiful children I love them dearly I couldn't give any of them up it
was just a mother's prayer and. All of
a sudden she was caught aware because she was surrounded by
a beautiful fragrance and she knew there was nothing in the house because Vera
Marie being so sick we had nothing no flowers no plants in the house and there was
this most beautiful indescribable fragrance. She just said it was close to flat
fresh flowers and when she was aware she heard
a voice within her and it said Bring your little girl to me here in Italy and do
not do you lay she understood that it was she made up her mind instantly that she
was going to bring this little girl to ponder in the year one thousand nine hundred
sixty eight OK now you're home with your wife one nine hundred sixty eight you got
five six kids in that she says she wants to go to bed early you have the money but
I had the money thank God because I had the business and she called me on the phone
and I said dear for if you want to go you're going to have to go you know you're
going to have to either find somebody because I can't just pack up and leave the
business and. I'll get there just like that. And so.
At that time you had to get shots OK OK passports passports you never traveled out
of the country and there were no fax machines and no one knew where Stand Your
Money was the travel agents didn't know where Send your money were Tondo was right
and they actually wanted to travel agent and he was helping the immigrants going
back were these like I don't even know where son Giovanni would Tondo it was on
known so it was truly miraculous because from the time she heard that low
Q.
Sion till the time she was on the plane Billie eight days had passed and you know that's
unheard of to have your vaccinations to get your passport. She was traveling with
the baby with the baby that's the younger one. They did she took my brother and
Vera Marie the sick child and the newborn because she was nursing mothers they
don't leave their nursing children in
a boat did she take an adult escort to help her have
a lady friend who went but my brother was there to do the heavy lifting and so it
was eleven and but husky and strong and my dad kept the three of us at home and
they had to go to court to swear custody to each other so that each of them could
maintain custody of the minor children all of this in eight days pud repeal was
truly on the job she gets to Italy makes her way it was
a long and arduous journey but she finally finds said Giovanni. She does meet
after his five o'clock mass and when she finally met her words were
that it was as if time stood still she could hear nothing around her she had was
totally unaware of her surroundings and it was she. And these children her sick
baby and she could only speak with her heart being born in the United States my
mother spoke English in
a few I guess the Italian dialect the words would tell you in dialect and she spoke
with her heart and she said but. Big black orbs pierced mine and she
felt as though he understood everything all of her needs and she said with her
heart she said please God make
a miracle so that all the people would be leave and she said and then when she came
to herself in this realisation she was like I wanted to ask for the life of my
child I wanted to ask but instead she asked for
a miracle that all the people would believe pide repeal understood still gazing at
her he blesses the children touched Vera Marie on. In the head and then all further
to my mother the back of his wounded hand to kiss the wounded hand covered with
this brown woolen glove and when she leaned in to kiss pawed repeals hand once
again she was surrounded by that fragrance and she felt that beautiful sense of
peace she just knew that everything was going to be all right and when she got back
to United States she took Vera Marie back to the hospital with my father they went
down they waited no results they sent them home hold them down again because they
didn't like the results they had gotten the first time and it was then they
revealed that the urinary bladder that they had removed had begun to come back to
grow back and as you mentioned about organs that were taken they do not regenerate
so my parents heard this news in one moment and then the very next
day my mother received a telephone call from
a family member or sister in law hero are you watching television while the last
thing my mom was doing was watching television with six kids in the sick and the
sick one but she said turn on the news Pod repeal is dead. And that
was her answer had she delayed had she not gone immediately had my father told
her No let's think about this she would never have seen Padre Pio she would never
of received that blessing she would never have gotten the Graces she would have
never been filled with that generosity that wanted to share Piper repeal with the
world and because she trusted in God's providence the center was able to
begin and so when we come back we're going to hear more about the pádraig that
National Center for pottery P.M.O.
In Bartow and how you too can feel part of that special feeling that the calander
is have been blessed with through the mission of project Pia We'll be right back
Ciao Bella living Italian style shall Bella My name is Sandy bangle
actress singer and very proud alumni of Albert showcase if you are one of the
thousands of Albert showcase alumni we're looking for you to join us in an upcoming
segment called Where Are They Now part of shall Bella living Italian style
on Radnor twenty one coming very soon job Bella. Welcome back to
child Belle living Italian style and this special edition on the National Center
for Podger
a piano bar topiary now celebrating forty five years your mother dedicated this
a year after he died that she had this desire to build this place my parents
went to say Frank you to Padre Pio they went back to Italy together to say thank
you and it was the friars who were still living that said well the best way to say
thank you to repeal is to share them with the world share of this great gift that
God has given to this century with all of the world so Ari did you look for the
property How did you come about saying that that this ground than bad toes going to
be used for a story that we move from the town up to Bartow area when
a year after twenty years yesterday twenty years because she exists lectured for
twenty year right and it had it had
a beautiful barn on it one of the most beautiful barn shining Birch County. And she
put
a chapel in there and they grew and it grew and it grew and it just there was no
no more room for people they were outside that microphone and out side and
everything so then there was
a man letter carrier right who had the farm and he was getting ready to sell it.
And he approached beer and he said I'm going to give you first choice and she
accepted it and that's how we got the lame. We got the lingo from her former right
around the corner from our regional players we purchased the land in one nine
hundred ninety four at the request actually of the friars in Italy because they saw
how the work had taken off in these years under her lecturing extensively and
also through the request of the United States our bishop at the time Thomas Welsh
had suggested we take
a survey and when we did this survey national survey it was overwhelming that the
people wanted to see
a monument something wonderful to in the United States because the Americans had
been so generous from the time they learned about back in the one nine hundred
forty S.
Through the generosity of the American people the greatest work of pride repeal
which is gabled the law so fetter and saw the hospital in San Giovanni where Tondo
also known as the home for relief of suffering was built by the Americans through.
A little more Evers and so forth and the donations and. They the American people
wanted to see something wonderful in the United States and the result of something
wonderful in the United States at the request of the spiritual children of pottery
P.O.
Is the center in Bartow Pennsylvania and we continue to keep the center open only
through the donations of the spiritual child children of those people who have
received favors those who have never even met but have prayed having learned about
him through our efforts and received wonderful wonderful graces and they send it
donation and say please help others please let spirituality be known and they
are the ones that make it possible that we can host myriad events throughout the
year and never ever ever charge one penny for anyone ever to come to the National
Center for pride to appear to participate in any of the which is wonderful I know
I've had
a tour out there and the museum part of it which was really fun
to if you would look at it and do as your museum that's now completed and the
beautiful history lesson or in the life of positive Well we had some wonderful
wonderful blessings along the way and one of the most was the encouragement by our
holy father Pope John Paul the second who was
a special friend to such pictures of your mother with the pope on your father's.
Special You know why and then she's explaining to him and you could see the play
and the artist's rendition of what the center would look like and he gave He's
giving his blessings and one of the most beautiful and for us priceless
mementos or in our museum is our holy father's pallium
and chalice because Pope John Paul the second invited my mother to be present at
the Beata. Vacation of pride repeal in fact she did the second reading during the
mass and after the mass was completed the pallium which is his sign of
office he removed and officially sent to the United States to be conserved ever
more in the home of pride repeal in the United States also one of the chalices used
by him was sent to the United States and we have what are now two precious
relics because they say it is
a great saint in heaven and he blessed this work and we knew that through pied
repeat and now Saint John Paul the second that the center would always flourish it
is
a very special center if you haven't had the opportunity to be there besides the fact
that you can see the museum in a beautiful gifts door to purchase through
a relics in an metals and books and movies there is also the chapel part
in the church in the confessional that was transported from Italy where pottery
Theo heard confessions so there is so much in Bartow to share and there's also
the glove that you've made available to those who Pilgrim add to the center can you
tell us
a little bit about that yes by all means this is one of the Brown will and gloves
that was used to cover the wounds on Padre P.O.'s hands in the same pure museum
there are several relics of pride repeal that people can see but there are many who
wish to come and embrace spidery piano and those that who call us and write us and
want to feel close to repeal we always place their intentions on this relic of
pride repeal and thus we let them know that we place their wants their needs and
them in the hands of pride repeat who was ever before the throne of Almighty God
presenting all of our petitions and the petitions of all. All of his spiritual
children throughout the world well we're going to put up
a picture of the padre Pierre center in Barco which is on beautiful property
available to anyone again for free you know check out the website one of the things
that I think is wonderful that you do on your website and I recommend it to many
people is you have
a petition page and you can go on to that petition page on their website and you
can put in your personal protection to think for someone who needs prayers or
situation you're in and what always the days me about that is there is no donation
button and when you hit send you don't have to put in your credit card or anything
you actually it is such a relief to know that you can find
a vehicle where you can say photo in put your intention and send it off to the
pottery P.R.
Center and it will be preyed upon preyed upon Harry and the last minute as we wrap
up today show any last minute thoughts that you want to sail your wife your
daughter the well Vera I never stood in various way for anything she ever wanted
to do. And when she wanted to travel in the very beginning you know I stayed home
with the children and made available many many times of year wasn't home for
Mother's Day or holidays because people wanted her and she went and I permitted you
know I mean I do you know because as an Italian American growing up and also it's
the women that have that kind of flexibility you were a pioneer of
a man very Calandra and and all this is made possible because the husband used to
have
a big every thumb years back rows days takes the big mantle of his wife go off on
her own mission and as a daughter Julia Well I could see that this is
a labor of love and I can truly state that there's no one with more generous hearts
than my parents because they loved one another so much that they gave each other so
much to others and they gave each other and to me I only hope to be able to
emulate that not only in my own personal life but to share that feeling with the
people who come when you come to the center you do become part of our family and
the family grows that way and not only we but our staff and our volunteers do
their best to to encourage people to visit and to become part of the family
because lives are touched lives are transformed and as pud repeal said
you love me because I'd leave you to Jesus through Mary Well that
sounds like
a perfect way to end this edition. On the National Center for Project P.O.
In Bartow I do encourage you if you have the chance to take
a drive out there any time or take
a group out there they are most welcoming and we will be doing another special
feature on the project Center with more real miracles that happen right here in
Delaware County so thanks again for joining us for child Bella living Italian style
. The
BE
. The
big
.
The big.